Development Plans Head For Showdown

October 30, 1985|By Art Barnum.

The shape of Downers Grove politics as well as its boundaries may be redefined next week.

Local opponents of the controversial Highland Woods development warned the Downers Grove Village Council this week that if the $250 million project is approved Monday, the field of battle will move from the numerous public hearings held over the last six months to the court system and the ballot box. ``We have now submitted petitions against the project with 3,566 signatures, with 2,089 of them from Downers Grove residents,`` Ronald Mitori, a member of a group opposing the project, said at the council meeting Monday.

``If you vote for the project, you will have ignored many problems that will be caused because of it, and we will exercise all other options we have

--through litigation and by working at the next election,`` said Mitori, a member of START, or Save Trees and People Too.

``I believe those 2,000 Downers Grove signatures are greater than the vote totals of the last two elected council members, and that it is greater than the margin of victory for the whole council, including the mayor,`` he said.

The council has set Monday for the council vote on the project, which calls for a seven-year development of the 42 acres on the southeast corner of 31st Street and Highland Avenue. The developer, Philip Mappa, of Des Plaines, is asking the village to annex and rezone the property to permit construction of up to 10 offices and a hotel.

Mappa does not own the land but has contracted with the owners of 29 single-family homes, which would be demolished.

The village`s plan commission and zoning board recommended the project to the council last spring.

Downers Grove Mayor Betty Cheever said Monday that the council has three options: reject the project, accept it as proposed or accept it with revisions.

``Debate is over, and we have reached the end of the input process. Now it is time to make a decision,`` Cheever said Monday.

Among the problems that would be caused by the project, according to START members, are noise, pollution, lower housing values and pressure on community services. But from the start of the discussion on the project, the biggest issue has remained traffic near the intersection of 31st Street, Highland Avenue, the East-West Tollway and Butterfield Road.

Several times the council has asked for more information on future traffic patterns at that intersection.

Though several START members say the vote will be in favor of the project, Cheever said, ``I don`t know what the motion will be that night and what we will finally vote on.``

Asked by residents attending the council meeting about how the council will react to the petitions against the project, Cheever said: ``You have to weigh the potential of the area. Traffic is lousy now because we all are driving. That horrendous intersection isn`t going to change by going against the project.

``We were not elected to take a poll, but make a decision,`` Cheever said.